Internet on a amiga 500

[patrik]

@som99:

I think there was a never released version of the tcp/ip-stack AS225 that could be run under kickstart1.3, but you will need atleast kickstart2.0 to run the existing tcp/ip-stacks.

With some dedication and work, you should be able to get the last free version of AmiTCP - AmiTCP3.0b2 running in that 1MB of memory you have over a nullmodem cable using either the  slip or ppp protocol. Which of those two you can use depends on the capabilities of your pc os.

A tip regarding AmiTCP3.0b2: the startnet script created by the installation will contain an error - exactly what is mentioned in the notes or readme in the archives root-dir.

You might also find this and continued here useful regarding how to fix the startnet script issue and the AmiTCP setup in general.


/Patrik

[patrik]

@jkirk:

AmiTCP works fine as long as you manage to get the configuration ok. It is also faster and takes less memory than Miami. You should be able to make it run from diskette if you really wanted to.


/Patrik

[patrik]

@som99:

With "internet on the A500", do you mean internet as a working tcp/ip stack on an A500 connected to the internet, or is it in layman terms as in "web browsing on an A500"? The latter takes more hardware and software to accomplish than the former.

As you live in sweden, the easiest thing would be to buy a 3.1 kickstart from www.ggs-data.se. You could probably get the 3.1 workbench disks from there too. If not, get it from www.vesalia.de (inside the eu). And as jkirk said OS3.1 is the most recent version you can run on clean A500 as 3.5 and 3.9 requires a 68020 cpu at a minimum (the A500 has a 68000).

If you are gonna pull this of though, you will need to know some about how to use the amiga workbench and software for it.


/Patrik

[patrik]

@som99:

List of stuff you need:
3.1 kickstart ROM
3.1 Workbench disks
A harddrive controller with builtin memory-expansion such as for example the GVP Impact HD8+. Be aware that those can be a bit tricky to get hold of and if they don't come with a preinstalled os you _will need_ to partition a harddrive on the Amiga and how to install the os.

Vesalia is cheapest on the 3.1 kickstart ROM + 3.1 Workbench disks, they charge 17.90 + 9.90 EUR for it.

There is absolutely no problem running 3.9 on an A500 given that you have an accelerator with a 68020 or better cpu on it. There are even 68040 accelerators for it like the PP&S Progressive 500/40.

Btw, where in sweden do you live?


/Patrik

[patrik]

@som99:

I agree with jkirk - 3.1 is a better choice, it is faster and more applications work with it is much more compatible with kick 1.2/1.3 games. If someone didnt get 2.04 back in the days it was because of some poor programmed games didnt work with it, but 3.1 is _much_ better in that aspect.


/Patrik

[patrik]

@som99:

The A600 will be cheaper to get on the net as it has a IDE harddrive-controller and room for a 2.5" (laptop) harddrive.

There are caveats though - first you will need to get a 3.1 kickstart for that one too (2.05 is standard) as the only webbrowser available for 2.1 is the oldest version of AMosaic and that one cant show many pages. The other caveat is that you will have to get more memory as the A600 has way to little memory even if it is expanded to 2MB chipmem to be able to use a browser.

(edit):

If it already has 2MB chipmem, (1MB standard), you can upgrade its fastmem using a 4MB PCMCIA static ram card. I dont know where you can buy those though :-(.


/Patrik

[patrik]

@som99:

An old reasonably sized 2.5" harddrive is cheap. Keep below 4GB to avoid OS issues. Also the partitions on it needs to be smaller than 2GB.


/Patrik

[patrik]

Dont forget that you cant expand the memory of the A600 more than 2MB (without rare and expensive accelerator) if you use the pcmcia port for a ethernet nic. And I am very unsure if say IBrowse would launch with just 2MB memory.

Btw, check out this A600 .


/Patrik

[patrik]

@som99:

Yes, unfortunately it is me ;-).

Btw, as you are a swede, dont forget to visit the swedish amigaforum safir.


/Patrik